Crippling gas crisis: Energy Ministers under fire
The crippling Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) crisis in Ghana has forced Ghanaians to call for the immediate resignation of the Energy of Minister, Dr. Joe Oteng Adjei and his Deputy in-charge of Petroleum, Dr Emmanuel Kofi Buah.
This call was made by members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Convention People's Party (CPP) and the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), among others.
According to the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NDC, Mr. Ade Corker, those who are in-charge of the Energy Ministry must be fired. People should stop blaming the President for the ongoing gas shortage in the country.
He told ETV Ghana Breakfast Show yesterday that: 'The Minister and his colleagues at the Energy Ministry should be blamed for not doing anything to solve the gas shortage'.
A board member of the Energy Commission, Kofi Wayo, also added his voice to the call on President Mills to sack the Minister of Energy, for the gas shortages.
Mr. Mike Oquaye Jnr., a leading member of the NPP, who was a panelist on the ETV Breakfast show also called on the Mills-led government to tell Ghanaians what plans they are putting in place to address the gas shortage. He added that 'the government has no vision and Ghanaians should not give them their mandate in next year's general elections'.
Mr. Oquaye Jnr. noted that government's efforts at solving the gas shortage is belated, since the challenges of gas availability started in 2009.
A Deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who called into the show, said the President will summon a special cabinet meeting this week, to find a lasting solution to the gas problem facing the country.
The emergency cabinet meeting was preceded by a Special Team that was set up to probe the gas shortage. The team presented their final report to the President last week, and snippets of information from the report has shown that there is a substantial increase in the demand for gas by commercial vehicles, which has contributed to the crisis.
Furthermore, statistics from the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) has shown that out of 180,000 commercial vehicles registered in 2011, 40,000 are using LPG. Out of the 40,000, 81% are dual consumption (using gas and petrol).
Mr. Ablakwa was quick to reveal that government spends GH¢15 million monthly on LPG subsidy, adding that the LPG usage as at 2008 was 5,000 metric tons a week, but it has now increased to 8,000 metric tons a week and over 250,000 metric tons a year, hence the shortage in supply. He attributed the ongoing gas crisis to lack of gas storage facilities.
Mr. Kwame Jantuah, an expert in energy, told the Business Chronicle that if sacking the Energy Ministers will solve the problem, then the President should not hesitate to do that. We don't have the culture of resignation, otherwise, they would have resigned by now.
Government however, says it cannot be blamed for recent shortage of LPG in the country. It says the country lacks the capacity to increase its production, storage and distribution of LPG, a situation it blames on the previous government.